Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing headlines Malaysian director Chong Keet Aung’s third feature film, Mother Bhumi.
The film centers on a community of farmers living on the Malaysia-Thailand border. The story is about Hong Im, a farmer who recently lost her husband under mysterious circumstances. Hong Im uses black magic to deal with the villagers’ everyday problems, but an encounter with a ghost reveals the secret of her husband’s death.
The cast includes Taiwan’s Bai Lung Ying (Golden Horse Award-winning “Old Fox”) and Hong Kong’s Natalie Hsu (“Sook Mun”), who play Hong Im’s son and daughter, respectively.
Director Chung’s previous films include “A Story of a Southern Island,” which was screened in Locarno and Rotterdam, and won the Best New Director award at the 2020 Golden Horse Awards. His second novel, Midsummer’s Snow, was selected for Venice Days. In 2023, it was nominated for nine Golden Horse Awards. The film was structured as an Asian multinational co-production and investigated the Malaysian race riots in which a large number of Malaysian-Chinese people were killed. Discussion of the topic is largely absent in Malaysia, and the film was subject to heavy censorship when it was released in theaters this summer.
‘Mother Bhoomi’ is a Malaysian-Italian co-production. Director Kyu Seung Wong’s Janji Pictures, which produced Chung’s early feature films, is the Italian branch of Taiwan-based Volos Films, and Stefano Centini’s Volos Films Italia (The Settlers) ) is affiliated with.
Filming is currently underway and is expected to wrap up in November. The team is aiming for a release on the festival circuit in late 2025.
Since overcoming a period of severe hardship, including huge fines due to income tax errors, fans have become regulars on the festival circuit in Europe and Asia. She has also worked outside China.
One of Hwang’s recent international ventures is Han Shuai’s “Green Night,” which was screened at the Berlin, Busan, Singapore and Santa Barbara Film Festivals. In “Green Night,” Hwang plays a Chinese woman trapped in a repressive life with her Korean husband who goes on an adventure with a mysterious green-haired girl played by Lee Joo-young (“Broker”). Director Hwang won the Singapore International Film Festival’s Cinema Icon Award in 2023.
She also held a fan-friendly masterclass in Singapore where she reflected on her career and talked with Lee, with whom she has worked on Lost in Beijing, Buddha Mountain and Double Exposure. He spoke fondly of his great working relationship with Yu. ”;And about “X-Men: Future Past,” in which she co-starred with Hugh Jackman as Blink.
